Is it permissible for us to say that a specific person is an innovator because of his being associated with a political group?

Question:

"Is it permissible for us to say that a specific person is an innovator because of his being associated with a political group? He is the imaam of a Masjid. Or, is it that this judgement can only be passed on a person who openly does innovation and invites to it?"

Answer:

"Bid’ah must be understood as what comes in the Deen not in matters of worldly affairs. Innovations may be from the perspective of adding to or subtracting from a matter, bringing forward or delaying it, or regarding its place or time, or by doing an action or leaving it off, in matters of the Deen. Bid’ah is of two types: actual bid’ah (بدعة حقيقية) or secondary bid’ah (بدعة إضافية) i.e. it is related to a legislated matter of the Deen.

One is termed an innovator if sometimes he does the bid’ah on his own or sometimes he calls to doing a bid’ah. Therefore, one must be careful in examining the act of the individual to determine his condition before applying the legal regulations to this individual. If one acts in opposition to what Allaah has legislated then that action is an innovation. If one calls to innovation then this is more severe. The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم taught us that “whoever establishes a good sunnah then for him is the reward and the reward of all those who act by it until the Day of Judgment, without anything being reduced from their rewards, and whoever establishes an evil sunnah then for him is the sin and the sin of all those who act by it until the Day of Judgment, without anything being reduced from their sins”.[1] As for calling a specific person an innovator simply because he claims to be a part of a political group, then this should not be done. If he accompanies them in their innovation or he calls to their innovation then this is different."